Illustration of a war scene with a fighter plane overhead and armed soldiers in camouflage seen in the grass.

Grenada 1983

Placeholder author icon
By Matthew Frakes ’13

Published Oct. 20, 2026

Grenada 1983 offers a detailed examination into the U.S. invasion of Grenada, the largest and most significant American military operation since the end of the Vietnam War. When a hardline Marxist faction seized power in October 1983 in Grenada’s existing communist regime, a coalition of Caribbean nations came together and requested U.S. assistance, prompting President Ronald Reagan and military leaders to plan an invasion with little warning and limited intelligence. This plan became Operation Urgent Fury, involving the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and other special forces in a three-day battle against Grenadian and Cuban forces. Back on home soil, the U.S. government defended the intervention as necessary to rescue the American students stranded on the island. Drawing on detailed maps, diagrams, and artwork, Grenada 1983 (Bloomsbury Publishing) is a rich exploration of the political and military challenges of this invasion and its broader role in the modernization of the U.S. armed forces at the end of the Cold War. 

Paw in print

Image
Terri Sewell ’86 at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, stands next to a portrait of civil rights leader John Lewis.
The Latest Issue

November 2026

History is in Terri Sewell ’86’s hands; campus mental health culture; the two Princetons.